Winchendon Weekly News -- December 15, 2023

From the Desk of Dr. Goguen - Superintendant's Update December 15, 2023

Enroll Your Child in Head Start

Enrollment is now open for the Winchendon Head Start program. The Pre-School program has many openings for local families. For complete information, see one of the flyers linked below:

Head Start (English)

Head Start (Español)

Gateway Cities Caucus Urge Healey Administration to Act on Vocational School Admissions

(Boston - December 20, 2023) The Chairs of the Gateway City Caucus sent a letter to Governor Maura Healey this week, urging her administration to end discriminatory outcomes at vocational schools by mandating an admissions lottery across the Commonwealth. Among the letter's 26 signatories are Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) and Education Committee Senate Chair Jason Lewis (D-Winchester).

"Eighth graders who grow up in poverty in Massachusetts deserve the same opportunity as anyone else to attend a vocational school and learn a trade," said Gateway Cities Caucus Senate Chair John J. Cronin (D - Fitchburg). "Instead, our outdated system allows schools to discriminate against them in favor of top-performing, college bound applicants. It makes no sense, hurts kids, and is a key contributor to the workforce crisis in the trades we face today. Lotteries, used by all charter schools in Massachusetts, are not a theoretical or radical proposal. When implemented, they end discriminatory outcomes."

"We need to remember vocational-technical high schools are public schools. All students should have an equal opportunity to attend. Too many college-bound students are going to voc-tech schools," said Gateway Cities Caucus House Chair Antonio Cabral (D - New Bedford). "With better academic performance, under the current selective admissions criteria still in place in most districts, these students crowd out the kids who might have benefited from a more hands-on learning experience and those who wanted to learn a trade as an alternative to the time and expense of a college-degree program -- or simply, because the trades are where their interests lie. With the current demographic mix of their student bodies, I am concerned voc-tech high schools are not serving the students they were intended to serve. A weighted lottery process would address these inequities in both the short & long term."

"The Vocational Education Justice Coalition strongly supports the legislation that Representative Tony Cabral, Senator John Cronin, and other legislators filed to change the admissions policy from ranking students to a lottery," said Lew Finfer, an organizer for the Vocational Education Justice Coalition. "Using DESE's own data, if we had a lottery, over 1,000 additional Students of Color, English Language Learners, Student with Disabilities, and Low-income Students would have been admitted. Civil rights laws are being violated by the present admissions policy."

The letter sent to Governor Healey asks her administration to direct the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to prohibit vocational schools from using "selective criteria," such as grades, attendance, disciplinary records, and guidance counselor interviews, as a determinant of admission. The letter sites the disproportionate impact these policies have had on marginalized groups of students, specifically low-income students, students of color, English language learners, and students with disabilities. The signatories advocate that BESE mandate that vocational schools implement an admissions lottery, where students in each sending community are selected at random.

In 2021, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) changed existing regulations to allow vocational schools to choose whether to use selective criteria in their admissions processes. Despite this change, 26 out of the Commonwealth's 28 vocational schools continue to use selective criteria to admit students. Also referenced, are the widening "opportunity gaps," the rate at which specific groups of students are admitted, that have continued to persist regardless of the regulatory changes.

During the 2022 admissions cycle, both Assabet Valley Vocational High School and Worcester Technical High School implemented admissions lotteries, resulting in a significant reduction in opportunity gaps.